Why instant payments create instant complaints

• RTP® transactions reached 246 billion USD in 2024 (source https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payments/real-time-payments).

• BAI’s article “Don’t get left behind: The urgency of instant payments” ranks real-time rails the top 2025 priority for FIs (https://www.bai.org/banking-strategies/real-time-payments-for-the-u-s-not-anytime-soon).

• Support queues spike whenever a transfer sits in “pending”, “investigation” or “rejected”, especially after hours when live agents are scarce.

Fini telemetry across 42 fintech deployments shows instant-payment errors now represent 27 percent of all chat volume, dwarfing legacy ACH and batch SEPA queries.

Error-code atlas , know the enemy

Tip, link the code in your help-centre article directly to its rail spec page above for extra authority.

Hidden cost of “money in limbo”

Q1 2025 data across Fini clients, 7.8 million chats:

• 2.1 million (27 %) were instant-payment errors,

• Agents spent 11 minutes per ticket on look-ups, reversals and reassurance,

• After Agentic flows, average resolution dropped to 51 seconds and cost per ticket to 0.19 USD,

• CSAT rose from 3.4 to 4.2 on a 5-point scale.

Detailed ROI sheet - Shadow AI Risk

Why FAQ bots stall , Agentic AI fixes

Reference architecture

FedNow status action (JSON)

json
CopyEdit
{
  "action": "GET_PAYMENT_STATUS",
  "rail": "FedNow",
  "params": { "transactionId": "{{txId}}" }
}

If 904 returns the agent replies, “Receiver rejected the payment, beneficiary details mismatch, funds stayed in your account. Correct and resend, code reference.

Case study , mid-tier US neobank

Copy-paste flow templates

Flow A , Pending > 30 min (FPS or FedNow)

yaml
CopyEdit
trigger: status_pending_30m
steps:
  - QUERY_STATUS
  - IF receiver_rejected:
        - INFORM_USER
  - ELSE

Flow B , Debited-but-Failed (RTP or SEPA Inst)

yaml
CopyEdit
trigger: debit_confirmed_but_status_failed
steps

Flow C , Duplicate Send (PayTo)

yaml
CopyEdit
trigger: duplicate_payment_detected
steps

Implementation tips

• Tokenise PAN or IBAN via Stripe, https://stripe.com/docs/tokenization, or Very Good Security, https://www.vgs.com

• Register FedNow webhooks and pacs.002 callbacks at https://developer.fednow.org

• Prevent duplicate refunds with idempotency keys explained at https://12factor.net/idempotency

• Host Fini regionally on AWS us-east-1, eu-west-2, ca-central-1 or ap-southeast-2 , region map https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regions_az

• Add fraud scoring via Sift, https://sift.com, or Riskified, https://riskified.com

Important Links

• FedNow overview https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/about.html

• FedNow ISO 20022 codes https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/iso20022.html

• FedNow FAQs https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/fednow-frequently-asked-questions.html

• RTP developer portal https://developer.tchrtp.com

• RTP statistics https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp/about-rtp/rtp-statistics

• Pay.UK Faster Payments rules https://www.wearepay.uk/faster-payments

• EPC SEPA Inst guidelines https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu

• NPPA PayTo documentation https://nppa.com.au/payto

• BAI instant-payments report https://www.bai.org/banking-strategies/article-detail/delivering-on-the-promise-of-instant-payments

• Stripe tokenisation https://stripe.com/docs/tokenization

• Very Good Security vault https://www.vgs.com

• Sift fraud scoring https://sift.com

• Riskified fraud scoring https://riskified.com

• AWS region map https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regions_az

• 12-Factor idempotency pattern https://12factor.net/idempotency

• ECB retail payments stats https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/retpaym/html/index.en.html

• CFPB Regulation E text https://www.consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1005

• Fini Platform https://www.usefini.com/product/platform

• Fini Security https://security.usefini.com/

• Zendesk integration https://www.usefini.com/product/integrations

Next Steps for you

Book a 30-minute demo to watch Fini auto-resolve real-time payment failures before customers even type “where’s my money?”

Real-time rails should delight customers, not drown agents, equip your stack with an Agentic AI that fixes failures while you sleep.

Contact us and resolve real time payment failures issues with Fini.